title: The development of an observer-scale for measuring social dysfunction and aggression.
abstract: Scales for measuring aggressive cognitions and behaviour have mainly been administered by nursing-staff or been self-ratings. During recent years we have made an attempt to construct an observer-scale for aggression analogous to the Hamilton scale for depression. The Social Dysfunction and Aggression Scale (SDAS) consists of 9 items (SDAS-9) covering outward aggression and 2 items (SDAS-2) covering inward aggression. The inter-observer reliability of the SDAS has been found adequate in terms of intra-class coefficients. In a pilot study on 82 inpatients from different centres in Denmark and Sweden the SDAS was compared to three-item scales for outward and inward aggression and to a global scale for outward aggression. The results showed that the SDAS-9 correlated positively with the other outward observer-scales, and the SDAS-2 with the other inward scale. A divergent validity was seen between the outward and inward scales, indicating that it is necessary to measure both dimensions. Preliminary ranks-according-to-frequency scores showed the following order of the nine outward items: irritability, dysphoric mood, social disturbances, nondirected verbal aggressiveness, negativism, directed verbal aggressiveness, physical violence towards staff, physical violence towards things, and physical violence towards persons other than staff.
authors.affiliation: Danderyd Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wistedt
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Malm
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Träskman-Bendz
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wakelin
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bech
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D014754:Violence